Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
Returning from their summer recess, United Kingdom politicians are poised to enact a deeply misguided and flawed law that will make the internet less safe for everyone on Earth—and the United States and European Union aren’t far behind.
The House of Lords this summer squandered a key opportunity to amend the Online Safety Bill —truly a misnomer for the ages—so that it won’t erode vital protections for all digital communications. Amendments could still be offered until Sept. 1, but this seems less likely with each passing hour.
U.K. government officials, for years, have voiced concerns that online services don’t do enough to tackle illegal content, particularly child sexual abuse material. The “solution” was the Online Safety Bill, ostensibly seeking to make the U.K. the world’s safest place to use the internet.